Peter Donald Albert Cohen, Ph.D.

Peter Cohen has been researching drug use, drug policy
and drug use epidemiology at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, as
director of the first Amsterdam Drug Research Program, and since
1996 as director of CEDRO, the Centre for Drug Research.

Dr Peter Cohen first entered the field of drug research
in 1980 by way of a course in sociology on the 'history of social
problems'. In his view, human construction of cultures and societies
can be partly understood by studying what a society defines as a
problem and why. Since then he has studied the so called drug problem
as one of the many 'social constructions' of western culture, based
on complex prejudice and ideology. His main interest is to conduct
empirical research on typical drug myths such as those relating
to addiction to cocaine or to cannabis as a stepping stone to more
'dangerous' drugs. Large-scale epidemiological drug use research
in the city of Amsterdam and later in the Netherlands as a whole
have been conducted. Dr Cohen is currently Director of the Centre
for Drug Research at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences,
Universiteit van Amsterdam, doing research funded mostly by the
Dutch Ministry of Health.

Born: Haarlem, 5 February, 1942

Educated as Experimental Social Psychologist and
Sociologist at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, 1960-1968.

CEDRO is led by Dr. Peter Cohen, who has carried
out a large amount of research on socio-scientific issues such as
drug use, drug policy, and methodological aspects of drug research.
This, among other things, led to his invitation by the then Minister
of the WVC, (Ministry of Welfare, Public Health and Cultural Affairs),
to hold seats in international commissions such as the Pompidou
Group, a commission of drug experts, which within the European Council,
compiles and improves indicator data for drug policies. In addition,
as from 1990, upon request by the European Commission and the Ministry
of Health, Welfare and Sports, (VWS), he regularly functioned as
advisor for the development of the Observatoire de Drogues of the
European Union.

From 1993 until 1995, as representative of the European
Parliament, Peter Cohen was on the Board of Directors of the European
Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, (EMCDDA), located
in Lissabon. From the 'Wereld Gezondheidsorganisatie', (Program
of Substance Abuse), he received an invitation to act as advisor
for the 'Global Cocaine Project'. During 1992 and 1993, for the
benefit of this project, he supplied the research concepts for surveys
in twenty countries. It was the 'cocaine study' in particular, which
finally earned him the international Lindesmith Award of the American
Drug Policy Foundation, which was bestowed upon him in Washington
DC, in 1993.

Peter Cohen is a highly regarded speaker in his own
country as well as abroad. In addition to giving lectures at numerous
scientific conferences, he addressed the Polish Parliamentary Commission,
working on penal drug legislature, the Drug Policy Commission of
the Belgian Parliament, various drug policy commissions in Italy,
(Florence, the Province of Emiglia Romagna, the Province of Trapani
in Sicily), a delegation of the German Magistracy, medical associations,
and numerous political parties, youth organisations and associations.